The great Transformation

The face of TelkomKenya has changed drastically, over the last few months. Many Kenyans have not noticed this may be because of its former bad reputation of being badly managed government institution with lazy employees. Did i say lazy? Well am not sure if that is the correct terms because the funny thing is most of those employees are still there only that they have changed their working attitudes and ethics. So the question is what was wrong then, the finger at this point will point directly to the management. We should pause at this point and ask, does government get embarrassed after selling an institution and then immediately the same start performing wonderfully? I know most of you are saying that this is Africa where the worst performing government officials would rather die than resign from the office! Mmmmmmmmmh

That a side TelkomKenya recently gave broadband Plus internet connection to a number of Kenyan bloggers. Yes it is was free connection with two months free full access to the internet. In general, broadband refers to telecommunication in which a wide band of frequencies is available to transmit information. Because a wide band of frequencies is available, information can be multiplexed and sent on many different frequencies or channels within the band concurrently, allowing more information to be transmitted in a given amount of time (much as more lanes on a highway allow more cars to travel on it at the same time). I can assure you that it is pretty good and fast.

This is double-edged sword for the company, in one hand the Kenyan bloggers are now being acknowledged as a real force to reckon with and at the same time the company is using this as marketing channel. To know how importance Kenyan bloggers have become you need not to look further than the nation media group website where www.haiya.co.ke is advertising the blogging competition they have launched . The Haiya on their website have dubbed it biggest blogging competition starting from first September to 30th September 2008.

Bloggers most of them who involve in participatory journalism is shaping the journalism in general in a scale never seen before. It is now hard to find a major media house without a blogging site. Bloggers get around the filter and push their information directly to the public, and let say amen to them because the time for media censorship even in the most closed societies like China are coming to an end. Be reminded that bloggers and other contributors to user generated content ware behind the Time magazine naming their person of the year in 2006 as “you”. With eagerly expected completion of fiber optic connection of Kenya to the outside world next year, we can definitely predict the future of journalism in this country.

The TelkomKenya transformation and the looming entry of Econet in the Kenyan market has tilted the landscape. In real business point of view money is made by beating competition not avoiding it. It brings the best out of market players, and at the end it is principle promoter of economic efficiency. Let the big boys and mamas in telecommunication sector sweat to give us the best. By the way, as a Kenyan i first feared that selling of TelkomKenya by the government was the worst blunder ever made by the government. This was simply based on the fact that our telecommunication is now directly in the hands of foreigners, and is that not a breach of our national security? But now looking back, I think it was the best we could do under the prevailing circumstance.

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Kennedy Kachwanya is a technology blogger interested in mobile phones both smart and dumb, mobile apps, mobile money, social media, startups ecosystem and digital Savannah. New media must not forget the strength of old tech.